Wednesday, 4 a.m.
The flaws will be forgotten. The defensive lapses will be lost. The mistakes won’t be discussed.
This time, all anyone will remember about a Lightning loss will be a call that went the wrong way in the final seconds of a 2-1 loss to Edmonton.
The Bolts were scrambling on a power play when the puck went into the Edmonton net with 8.6 seconds to play. However, Nick Paul was called for a high stick, negating the goal, and the Oilers won 2-1.
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Yeah, a last-second call stings. But the Lightning also need to focus on defensive lapses that led to constant breakaways by the Oilers. Connor McDavid scored on one of his two breakaways. It was McDavid’s 12th goal in 13 games against the Bolts. It was his 11th goal in his last 14 games.
“We were giving it to them,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “That was tough. We hadn’t been doing that as of late. We gave up four breakaways in the first 20 minutes. It’s unacceptable. That’s how you walk away with no points in a hockey game.”
The Bolts’ goal was the 13th of the year by Jake Guentzel, his fourth straight game with a goal. Nikita Kucherov and Braydon Point had assists on the play.
“That was a bad hockey game,” Cooper said. “Probably by both teams. There was a lot of talent on the ice and neither team had it. We pushed (in the third period), and we had our looks. WEejust didn’t have it. Most nights, we’ve had it. But tonight we didn’t. In 82 games, you have to sneak some points on nights you don’t have it.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy had 23 saves on 25 shots.
The Bolts’ road trip continues Thursday night at 9 p.m. in Calgary.